Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,049,663) for an “intelligent automated assistant for media exploration” with the goal of making Siri better at finding music and videos you wish to listen to or watch.
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In the patent filing, Apple notes that, when managing music or other media, a digital assistant can be helpful in searching for or playing back specific media, particularly in a hands-free environment. In particular, a digital assistant can respond effectively to a request to play a specific media item, such as an album or a song identified specifically by title or by artist.
However, digital assistants can struggle with discovering relevant media items based on vague open-ended natural language requests, such as, for example, a request to recommend a song or album. Apple wants to change this.
Here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: “Systems and processes for operating an intelligent automated assistant to explore media items are provided. In one example process, a speech input representing a request for one or more media items is received from a user. The process determines whether the speech input corresponds to a user intent of obtaining personalized recommendations for media items.
“In response to determining that the speech input corresponds to a user intent of obtaining personalized recommendations for media items, at least one media item is obtained from a user-specific corpus of media items. The user-specific corpus of media items is generate based on data associated with the user. The at least one media item is provided.”
Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.